𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒

ㅤㅤ⇆ . 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡

Mental growth is something that begins at birth and ends only at the very end. It’s something that sticks with us our entire life. Sometimes the growth is big, but usually it’s small. However, we are always constantly growing and maturing. It’s a natural process.

Maturing is something that can be defined in many ways. To me maturing is understanding. As a toddler, you don’t really realise why you are crying. You don’t understand why you feel emotions or why other people expect certain things from you. Maturing is learning to live in a world like this. In animal history, maturing has always been about learning ways to survive. For humans, it’s become more of an emotional and mental battle, if anything.

When you grow older, people expect larger things from you. Maybe maturing is learning to walk your own path and not care about the unsaid rules that society has forced upon itself.

Maturing is growing. Your mindset is constantly changing because of the things around you. Maybe a friend of yours sent you a funny Tik Tok about Timothteé Chalamet rapping. You learn more about him and maybe deep down you realise how different the path is for everyone and how it doesn’t go straight forward. You realise his growth from rapping to becoming one of the most successful young actors in the world.

You get new interests. You suddenly don’t like the things you used to like as a child. You never realise it at the moment, but when you give yourself time and look back, you notice how much you have changed. You aren’t the same person as you used to be when you were five years old. You probably have a lot of new friends, and new hobbies. You have learned a lot more and you might have even changed the scenery.

You are most likely currently a teenager struggling with mental health. During puberty, our mind grows from being a kid to being a responsible adult. This sudden change is terrifying and sometimes you might wish you were an oblivious kid again.

Then you can look into the future and think what kind of mindset you will have at thirty. I’m sure, whoever you are, your future self would be so proud of surviving the battle you are going through.

Or how about at sixty years old, when you are getting ready to retire? You will look back at your life. What would your life and mind look like at sixty years old?

I sometimes look at old pictures and chuckle. I am not the same person I was in those pictures. Sometimes I want to hold the person in those pictures close to me. Show them how much they would grow. Eight-year-old me would be surprised how I grew to become obsessed with books.

As I mentioned before, growing is a whole life thing, but it hits the hardest when you are struggling with your mental health. Everything seems to be falling apart and the world is crashing down. Even if it did and it will all become dust and darkness, there will always and forever be a small spark that when you find it, it will help you light up the whole world. You just have to find it. You might need help with finding it, but that’s okay. The spark will wait.

As scary as mentally growing is, there is always a positive perspective to it. You can grow to be the person you want to be. If the person you were at four years old was really the person you wanted to be, why did you grow out of that pace? Why didn’t you stick with it?

The thing about growing as well is that it doesn’t take away the things you deep down want to keep and that you need. It never takes anything away. Growing up doesn’t take away a trauma, it helps you live with it. Growing usually takes away the pain but there will always come new things to try and upset you.

You are stronger than who or whatever is trying to push you down. You can push through it.